Thursday, June 1, 2006

   Goodness, I have no idea what's been going on anymore . . .
Graduated, entertained family from out of town, went to work a whole bunch of times (especially closing shifts), lost track of all the animes I'm watching especially the really new ones like "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" and "Ouran High School Host Club" which both incidentally star girls named Haruhi, bought the full set of "Excel Saga" and the "Ranma 1/2 OAVs", bought a 1/100 Buster Gundam model, bought the FFVII:AC soundtrack for the car, bought a more-to-life-size Kon plushie for $20, lost another game of "Axis and Allies", saw "X3" which was good though it could have been brilliant had it been given more time, went back to the internet to look for that video that goes "I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!", neglected my friends on the internet because of all of this, tried to un-neglect but then MSN failed it . . . . .

. . . . . and that's about it. And now for something fun with minor foul language:




Cheers!

Random SomeGuy Trivia: I am an actual asian male. I am not a doctor, however.


EDIT: They'll probably miss this since they both already stopped by my neck of the woods . . . but HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Nickie and Tiffy! Our pretty little poppet One-Day is 20 years old today, and our elusive but darling Sana-san turns 22. Now go yell at them in the good way for a bit. That's an order.
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Tuesday, May 30, 2006

   Still a little busy, but have some pictures!

Myself without a suit. My aunt next to me, cousins and aniki behind me, and uncle way in the back videotaping me.


The shot of myself between my GIGANTIC brothers. Aniki's on the right, ototo's' on the left.


The most important photo of them all: the mother and me.

Rest of the pics thus far until my uncle sends his stuff to me:
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/emonkataren/Grad%202006/

Have a good Tuesday, now!
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Friday, May 26, 2006

   Faber est suae quisque fortunae
I probably won't have any pictures from my graduation for a few more days, whenever it is my dad can get around to e-mailing me the pics he took (and he took about five million, it was getting a little ridiculous . . .). But I will say that I had a pretty good time. Here's how the caper came down . . . . .

* * * * * * *

Got to school with the aniki and the Calgary sect of family at about 11:30am while the ototo drove the parents to the airport to check them in. It was just enough time to give them a micro-tour of the northern end of my campus and grab some pizza for lunch. As we walked around, I was getting more and more self-conscious about how I was dressed: I had dress pants, a white dress shirt, and my grandpa's red tie (it was the article of clothes I had picked out when my grandma told us to clear out what she could a few months after the funeral - see, I'm sentimental that way). Meanwhile, everyone else around me was wearing like, suits and stuff - heck, my uncle and the aniki even wore a suit that day! I dunno, I was just concerned about the heat under a grad gown and everything . . . ah well, too late for that . . .

At noon, I had to go to the graduate center to get my gown and get prepped and all that. As we circled back up, I found the father (who promptly snapped a picture as we walked closer). Everyone met together quickly and then I went on to the grad' center. Now, originally the aniki was coming with me, but then the father also caught up . . . heh, which was funny, because the aniki and I were about to talk about said-father a bit . . . ah well . . . . . anyway, the line-up was chugging along, I FINALLY saw people I recognised . . . and then my dad took more pictures.

Anyway, the aniki figured that basically it was grads only from that point on, so he urged the father to leave with him (I appreciated that). Of course, the father was concerned that I would get lonely, so to everyone's chagrin stuck with me in the line-up . . . taking more photos . . . . . . and I'm serious, once I was actually getting my gown, there was a SIGN that said "Grads only this point on". Nope, the father stuck with me, snapping pictures . . . . .

. . . . . I'm just gonna get it out there. When you grow up with just your mom, sometimes your dad becomes strange. Unlike some dads who'll try to embarrass you intentionally, mine is honestly thinking he's being a "there for me" kinda dad. Again, refer to said picture taking which really drove the aniki to his dark place . . . . . in any case, the father's a good guy. He's just . . . I dunno, maybe he doesn't realise that his son is in fact graduating from UNIVERSITY . . .

(Note the use of the JK Rowlings "Capslock of Rage"(TM). Yes, that is how emphatic it was.)

Aaaaanyways, the father did help pin my Bachelors hood to my gown, so that was nice. I looked around a bit for people I knew and stuff, but no dice. so I headed out the back door that lead to a sort of . . . I dunno, "backyard" area behind the graduate center. Found a girl I knew from Children's Lit' and War Lit', chatted with her a bit (the father snapped a picture) . . . eventually I called the ototo to find out where he was . . .

The parents (the mother and stepdad) were on campus at last!

Now, this backard area also had a path that led to a street corner. Technically we weren't supposed to leave the center, but people already were anyways, so I just stepped outside it to find my family. So yeah, after years and years and years of raising me, my mom finally got to see me wearing that gown and all that stuff. She seemed happy. I was glad.

And then I learned finally just how many combinations of brothers, cousins, aunt and uncle, and parents you can actually make to compose a photo (that would then be shot by three or four cameras). Yeah, there were a lot of pictures of us . . . a little nuts, methinks. In any case, the parents then went to find another family friend who would take them to the airport (and then to England) while the rest got into line to go into the theater.

So yeah, if you haven't noticed, we went through a lot of effort to get my mom to campus, even for just that little bit so we could get some pictures together. Just sayin'.

Now, the people then called us all back into the grad' center and sort us out. We all lined up into columns based on our procession number (I was 253 out of . . . I dunno, almost 500 people that one ceremony); we were apparently the largest group of graduates that spring, and we were all just English and Music students! At some point I turned around and saw an old classmate I hadn't seen in half a year - she also happened to be pregnant, which was neat. It's hard to describe right now, but the whole organisation thing was way more fun than it should have been. We were all laughing, cracking jokes, feeling warm . . . while we were all counting back to each other to confirm our places in line, I had a major "Band of Brothers" flashback (y'know, "Seven okay! Six okay! Five okay!...").

Anyway, we filed out and headed towards the Chan Centre for Performing Arts, where the ceremony was taking place. As we passed by, they handed us our diplomas and procession cards (which had our names and any pronunciation notes we felt the reader might need). Then off we went, through the light rain, down into a bit of the parking lot, and finally into seats in the theater. It was during this time that we realised that procession order wasn't exactly alphabetical; they were ordered by our fields of study first, and then by name. Heh . . . suddenly I realised that there were five other people graduating that spring with a Major in English, empahsis Literature and a Minor in Classical Studies.

Most of the actual ceremony was just people giving speeches. Y'know, we are the future, clean up Lake Erie, go save the world . . . I was just trying to figure out where my family was sitting! I found the father and uncle quickly, as they had moved ahead to videotape and photograph me better . . . the other five, not so easy . . . . . eventually we started getting called up . . . and we clapped. And then the next would walk across the stage, and we would clap. Then someone with a really fancy name would walk across the stage, and I would say "niiiice" because the reader did it so well, and then we would clap.

Eventually we started clapping less and less for every single person. There were a lot of us. But then sometimes you would see a classmate and you'd have to make more noise. Or say, they'd just look cute, or so proud, or embarrassed slightly, or waving to someone in the audience . . . or making secret gestures or something . . . ah, it was good. We were all having fun seeing each other go by.

Then my row gets up. we're all getting psyched. I'm still trying to find my damn brothers. No luck. I was gonna hafta count on figuring out where the very deep and baritone cheering was coming from . . . . . anyways, I quickly told the reader how to say my middle name (which I was regretting that I had on that card), and she quickly picked it up. So I gotta tell ya, it's a damn proud thing to hear your name being read CORRECTLY when you graduate. Then "flash", a few pictures on the side, a loud roar of masculinity from the far back and far top . . . heh, I still couldn't find them.

Then I walked across, flashed a quick sideways "devil horns" sign for my brothers (who I think missed it anyway), shook hands with all the people along the way, and picked up my alumni pin at the end. Heh, that pin was tiny . . . "five years for this!"

The rest went by much more chilled-like for me. Heh . . . and then the Music students got up . . . I gotta tell ya, I was jealous. As expected, the music students were ALL friends with each other, so tons of applause and cheer broke out for everyone. Heck, even the band in the theater was blasting out little musical cues for certain people (very funny stuff).

And then it was over. And we all cheered even more. Damn, it was a good day . . . . .


After the ceremony, there were some people to find and take pictures with, I chatted a bit with my Arthurian Lit' prof . . . couldn't find the Beowulf prof' . . . damn Wieland . . . . . but yeah, it was good. We were all very proud of ourselves, I think.


I messed up the coding in my last post, so I think I lost this bit. While the parents have promised me a trip as a graduation present, the brothers together got me a really nice Colibri of London watch. For one thing, it's a pocket watch (clever). For another, it's silver which just works for me (I don't know how they knew to do that). Best of all, it had an inscription on the back:

"Faber est Suae Quisque Fortunae"

It's a quote from Appius Claudius Caecus, the guy who (among other things), built the Appian way, first aqueduct in Rome, published the first legal procedures, gave many rights to lower-classed men, and served as a censor, a consul, and a dictator (less brutal connotations in those days). During the war with King Pyrrhus of Epirus, Appius made his war speech - the earliest war speech in recorded Latin - which stated that Rome would never surrender. This quote was a part of that speech . . .

"Every man is the artisan of his own fortune."
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Wednesday, May 24, 2006

   SomeGuy, BA (Major English Lit, Minor Classical Studies)
I'm gradumacating today at 1:30pm. Should be fun. I'll probably be very tired for it because it seems a couple friends are coming over tonight to play board games on a whim - and yes, these things do happen spontaneously when you feel the need sometimes. Hopefully I won't be too tired, though . . .

The parents gave me a card last night. Inside the stepdad had scribbled in, "Your gift is a trip when you want to take it." Heh . . . I need to talk to those other idiots soon so I can finally visit all you guys, eh?

After work last night I called the father to fill him in on how things were gonna work out and how he could find us as well. There was a bit of ultra-awkward question/answer, but I soldiered up and made my decision. It's not often people get to see me in ultra-angsty mode these days, so I'll probably keep this one to myself or maybe to my little MSN river . . . we'll just say it's based upon the nuclear family and its fission reaction . . . . . erm, but not quite as physically devastating . . . anyways . . .


I'll probably tell you guys about how it all went down tomorrow or the day after. Meantimes, there were some questions and requests in the last post . . .
Nothing's wrong with choir, except I had little desire to take the class (vocal jazz just . . . had a lot more interest and inspiration in it. I will totally come visit you if you clinic in BC, little one. Washington State is fun, I expect to come back some day, perhaps for SakuraCon next year or something. I'd love to go on a road trip with ya - when I swing through your neighbourhood, you wanna join in? I didn't get grad pics because I missed out and forgot - I'll post the ones from today, though. And Canada does have Wal-Mart, but things just seemed cheaper at that one; also many times bigger, it seemed.


So yeah. I'm gonna get a degree today. Rock on.


[Edit:] We played Axis & Allies: Pacific. I was Japan. I thinned myself out too much and India captured Japan - hence, I got splattered. Good times. And now it's 3:45am. Also good times.
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Monday, May 22, 2006

   No no no! Stick to the stuff you kno-o-ow . . .
I watched "High School Musical" the night before that trip. I've had "Stick to the Status Quo" in my head ever since. Damnit . . . it's a freakin' Disney Channel made-for-tv movie!!! Shameful, I know . . . did give me something between one of the other girls who planned the day trip down to the States (we basically watched it over a phone call. It was weird but silly).

So yeah, the trip was fun. Had a $10 lunch buffet that killed me, then it was shopping in the big Bellingham outlet place. I gotta say, I'd like to think that I handle myself quite well when in a shopping situation with three girls . . . just sayin' . . . . . I picked up a pair of $20 jeans, that was kinda nice - which is actually really hard, because the new style is apparently shiny or pre-torn all over . . . 'tis why I shall never be a stylish dresser, and that suits me just fine.

Then we went to Wal-Mart. That place is friggin' big and things are cheap. It was exciting. They had chocolate-covered tootsie-roll things. They also had the soundtrack for "High School Musical" so we played the demo version of "Stick to the Status Quo" again.

On the way home, we had dinner at The Olive Garden. I couldn't finish dinner (not that I was especially hungry to begin with . . .). Then afterwards we hit up a Krispy Kreme to buy donuts for my supervisor. It was our way of paying him off for letting me have that day off.

So yeah, fun trip. Apparently we might do an over-nighter for US Thanksgiving time . . . methinks I'd have no problem with that . . . . .


Next day at work sucked, though. That Sunday was a busier Sunday than Sundays usually are. And then a guy from another department tried to call in sick but no one could cover for him. And then he didn't come anyway. So yeah, I was by my lonesome watching two different departments for a couple hours before "Boromir" finally got a hold of someone to back me up an hour before closing. Things got better after that.

After work I caught up with the Calgary family, brothers, and the father while they had a late-night supper. Evidently they saved me a ton of food (of which I barely touched - again, the whole not hungry thing). So yeah, this should be a fun week.

Aaaaaaaaand . . . I think that's it. I'll go back to my "Ouran High School Host Club" subs and my smuggled Mike's Hard Berry (which we don't have in Canada, might I add). Have a good Victoria Day, now!

(No no no nooo!
No no no!
Stick to the stuff you know,
If you wanna be cool
follow one simple rule
don't mess with the flow, no no,
stick to the status quo...)


Random SomeGuy Trivia: My high school dropped the Vocal Jazz ensemble during the years I would have liked to have joined. I had no interest in the choir . . . . . of course after I graduated they restarted vocal jazz . . . ah well.
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Saturday, May 20, 2006

   Soylent Green is people!!!
This whole "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" thing is getting a little ridiculous . . . . . I'm so embarrassed . . . it really is brilliant, though . . .

http://sailormoonvssakaki.ytmnd.com/
See? Brilliant.

I'm just gonna continue with the linkage. So you know that video clip the other day with the Power Glove? Basically, it's from a 90 minute Nintendo commercial called "The Wizard". What's it about? A somewhat messed up kid who just happens to be a natural gamer. Fred Savage plays his brother. Anyway, here's the climax of the movie, where they played "Super Mario Bros. 3" a year before it came out!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1sLXaOY1To
(See if you can spot all the things that make absolutely no sense in terms of gaming!)

Anyways, I'd best be off quickly, since I'm gonna need to wake up extra early this morning to head down to The States with my 2 government-issued bits of ID and my expired passport (I hope they take me). Peace!


And as always, don't forget to check out Season Two of "Three Line Theater" if you haven't already. I promise you'll find at least something in there enjoyable.


[EDIT:] . . . . . . okay, one more. This is just too good to keep to myself . . .
BLEACH Myu Opening
"RUKIAAAAAA!!!!!"
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Friday, May 19, 2006

   Ohhh, I'm afraid the Death Star will be quite operational when your friends arrive . . . . .
Three worthy bits of news in this post.

Worthy the First:
On Sunday the Calgary sect of family is driving down to Vancouver to visit. The main reason is to come see my graduation (though I couldn't get enough sitting tickets for everyone). Of course then we also just get to chill with them again, which is always nice (I do believe they're my favourite sect of extended family).

Worthy the Two:
Starting in the second week of June, my Edmonton cousin is gonna be living with us again! Back in the olden days before the internet was "really" invented, she and her older brother lived in Vancouver with us for a couple years while their parents (my aunt and uncle) hopped around Asia on business. While the Calgary people may be my favourite extended sect of family, this cousin is easily my favourite individual extended family member. Heh, she even gets to stay in the same room as before (though now I'm not in there with her). So yeah, she'll be here until she settles down with work in Vancouver and all.

Worthy the Thrice:
Three Line Theater: Season Two is posted for your viewing pleasure!
This one was a little more gutsy, as I delved into more current and more popular titles than before. Now, I owe a lot to Red Tigress, since she had called doing Season Two last year . . . she was a good sport, though, and gave me the go-ahead for which I shall forever be indebted to her until I give her money or maybe more DVDs. Or money.
In any case, I'm quite proud of it and would love for all of you to see it as well. T'would make me happy, especially after I got tinged twice in the first half of its first day up . . . heh, it can't be helped, eh? So yes, do check it out if you can!


Other than that . . . goin' to Washington State for the day with some people at work on Saturday (birth certificates are still good for border-crossing, luckily), gradumacating on Wednesday (re-checked my application, where it now has my status as "Degree Conferred"), and . . . . . yeah, I'm watching way too much "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" with the live-action actors and the Luna plushie. We'll leave it at that for now.

Okay, one more. Nintendo nostalgia . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCseAxG0dwQ
"I love the Power Glove. It's so bad."
Alright, now I'm done. Tchau!


Random SomeGuy Trivia: I have a Power Glove in my house still. No NES with which to use it, but we have the glove. It's so bad.
No other Nintendo peripherals, though. Not even the Zapper (that's how early we bought an NES).
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Tuesday, May 16, 2006

   I'm neglecting the site again!!!
Happy Tuesday!!!

I feel like nothing and everything has happened since I last posted. Let's see what I can remember now . . .

Alright, so "Faramir's" school friend, the Hong Kong out-of-towner (whom we shall designate OOT:HK) was in Vancouver all week and I got to show her around a bunch of places. That took up a fair bit of the week. She left on Saturday and is now with her host mom in Washington state.

Picked up a couple DVDs over the week. "Moulin Rouge" (the 2-disc version) and "Sharpe's Eagle". I've watched the latter thus far (great episode in the series), and really need to get on top of my other watchings. Heh . . . and yet we keep getting more and more DVDs . . . . . seriously, we need more shelves!

My brother picked up "Dragonball Z: Budokai 3" for PS2. 'Tis a silly game. I've also decided that "Dragonball Z" fits into that category of stuff that you can always go back to and watch no matter what. You accept all its shortcomings, you accept how absolutely banal it can actually be . . . but it's comfort food, so you'll always have a part of you that can never hate it.

While on the subject of anime, I ended up watching a lot of "Sailor Moon" on YouTube over the week. I really can't give a good reason why . . . it started off as research of sorts, but then I just kept watching . . . I dunno, it's really funny a lot of the time!

The Saturday before Mother's Day was especially taxing for me at work. If you may recall, part of my job involves working in the flower shop at Superstore . . . . . well, flowers + Mother's Day = about five million bouquets of flowers. T'was a busy day that day . . . and then I ran out of scotch tape at the very end for wrapping flowers. It was scary. On the plus side I didn't have to work on the actual Mother's Day . . . . .

. . . . . Mother's Day at the house turned out to be in a similar style to our other big holiday dinner things, where a few dozen people come over for a party-type thing. Since it was also someone's birthday, my mom hired a catering service as well . . . that said, there's a lot of food in the fridge now. As for the mother herself, the brothers and I pitched together to get her a really nice (and somewhat pricey) bracelet. Going by the "wahhh!" around the table of other mothers, I'm guessing it was a nice one.

While on the subject of brothers, the older one found himself looking up Canadian Army type stuff on the internet that night after dinner . . . . .

. . . oh, quick tangent: my older brother the police officer recently got an Emergency Response Team position! This excites many of us . . . for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, ERT is basically SWAT but with 3 letters. So yeah, exciting . . . anyway, back to the webpage . . . . .

. . . so yeah, again he made the implication for me to look into the Army Reserves or something. And let's face it, I AM gonna need to start working a little more seriously now that I'm done school . . . . . and there's no doubt that I do have an interest in pursuing this matter . . . . . ah man . . . I need to get my ass in gear or something . . . get my ass in gear, and learn to run 2.4km in about 12 minutes . . . I think . . . . .


Meanwhile, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Capslock of Rage(TM)" continues to eat up all my night hours. Harry's dad was an asshole. This amuses me. I need to finish that soon . . .


. . . . Red! Are you online or no?! I've been meaning to talk to you for a while now! And if not, I mailed you that thing yesterday finally!

. . . . . rest of you, don't forget to watch "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya!"


I think that pretty much covers it. Am I missing anything?


Random SomeGuy Trivia: I live on the same street and a block away from my elementary school. I've lived on this street in New Westminster for a very long time . . .


EDIT: http://cosbybebop.ytmnd.com/
Holy crap. Funny.
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Thursday, May 11, 2006

   Mission Impossible 3's a'ight . . . . .
Watched it last night. Good, well done action. Spy planning and execution, also pretty fun to watch. Wow factor . . . um . . . . . wasn't quite there for me. So yeah, it's a'ight.

Aside from that . . . I was informed to watch "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya". 'Tis a silly show. And it's pretty amazing, it's only up to the sixth episode so far and ALREADY the internet is flooded with people in love with the dance during the end credits.



It is catchy, true . . . . . um . . . I'll just post links for the rest of the fandom . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhntMd5bPbc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nase8t4wI9k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTqFleoiDxE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EtveuCueV8 (Yeah, I'll help give this guy his five seconds of fame . . .)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMycrdY8qfI


Other than that . . . I picked up Harry Potter 5. Not a bad read so far . . . . . to be really nitpicky, though . . . . . three words:
"Capslock of Rage(TM)"

Bwahaha . . . . . a'ight, I'm done. See you guys after work.


Random SomeGuy Trivia: Going by my recent efforts to write humour personally, I've decided that I must have seen at least fifty to sixty complete animes by now, if not more . . .
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Tuesday, May 9, 2006

   Very quick post since I haven't done so in a while . . .
To make it clear, I did indeed get home quite safe. And with a Big Mac meal on top of that. No hangover the next day, either (I take way too many countermeasures for that).

Next off, since the lovely Tori asked, a Nock Volley Gun is essentially a 7-barreled musket that shoots all barrels with the one trigger pull. It was designed with ships in mind as a way to repel boarding raids, shot from the ropes of the ship down. In any case, being a freakin' 7-barreled gun, it was apprently quite an adventure to shoot. Luckily, Richard Sharpe gives it to his good friend Sgt. Patrick Harper, a giant Irishman who has no troubles handling such a thing . . . he's just cool that way.

(Taken from "Sharpe's Company")

"Seven barrels. Fires pistol balls. Mr. Nock of London. Dead handy weapon for picket duty, sir."

"Faramir" invited a friend from school back east to Vancouver. Think of it as "Out of Towner: Hong Kong Edition". In any case, I'm just glad she's used to big cities and mass transit, because HE hasn't been able to cater to her as well as he SHOULD be . . . I said I'd drive her some places, but I quite dislike feeling responsible for someone I am indeed not responsible for. Neat person, in any case . . . travels heavy, but that's probably because she has most of everything she owns since coming to Toronto/Canada in the first place. Ah well . . .

I also downloaded the "YTMND Soundtrack". 'Tis an eclectic collection of random songs. Me loves it.

And now I'm off to go to the bank and maybe see if I can't find that idiot English teacher at the high school (all of last year never worked because he was basically NEVER there). Cheers!


. . . . . heh, so much for a quick post . . .
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